[FONT="]—CHAPTER ONE—[/FONT]
[FONT="]‘[/FONT][FONT="]The[/FONT][FONT="] Fight’[/FONT]
Cabinet Room, Downing Street
September 11th, 2007
Ed Balls hurried into the meeting late. Having spent so long as Gordon Brown’s number two at the Treasury, both men were finding the separation enforced by their diverging career paths difficult. Even more so as the election drew closer, Balls found himself juggling his formal role as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with his informal one as the prime minister’s gatekeeper. Balls glanced around at the table as he took his seat and saw the familiar faces waiting there; Douglas, Harriet, Ed, Damien, Peter, Alistair… an assembly of the driving force that was the Brown government. Spread over the table was a succession of typed notes; the latest polling reports in marginal constituencies.
“Is it too late to cancel?”
The words caught the assembled company of government ministers, political advisors and party officials by surprise, and Balls noticed a couple of them look up to confirm that it really was the prime minister who’d said them. But it was, and Gordon’s gaze was sweeping around the table; it was as serious question.
For a moment, Balls’ eyes met Ed Miliband’s. The look said it all;
Too late to cancel? It was too late by a long way; the party was committed, the preparations made and the strategies ready to be rolled out as soon as the word was given. It was, by an age, too late to cancel. The question was really; “Does Gordon realise it’s far too late?”
The silence was held just long enough for Balls to realise that it was
him that they expected to answer.
“Gordon,” Balls began, “we can’t let one poll panic us. The national polls consistently put us ahead and the mood of the country is in our favour. Yes, it’ll be a risk, but it’s one we’ve got to take.”
There was a pause, as Balls shifted to
realpolitick mode.
“Gordon, forget all that; the press are expecting an election. If we don’t go to the country, they’ll say you bottled it, whatever we tell them. It’ll define your premiership. We have to go for it.”
It was that last comment that seemed to hit home. The meeting meandered on towards a non-conclusion, but as Balls left the room, he was convinced what the outcome would be.
Would have to be.